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New from Profootballtalk.com. Cap to be 94 or 98 million.


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2006 CAP NUMBER COULD STILL BE $98 MILLION

After a two-day delay, the NFL finally has announced the official cap numbers for 2006.

Per a league source, the per-team limit will be $94.1 million. There's a possibility, however, that the number will move to $98 million, pending the outcome of a grievance relating to certain television money.

If the CBA is extended before Friday, the cap will definitely shoot past $100 million, and possibly past $105 million.

SPECIAL MASTER RULING COMPLICATES MATTERS

At a time when NFL teams are trying to figure out how in the hell they'll stay on the right side of the salary cap absent an extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, a league source tells us that a Special Master has ruled on Wednesday that option bonus payments will count as signing bonus money for the purposes of the so-called 30 percent rule.

This means that it will be even harder to construct contracts in 2006, the final capped year under the current CBA. Under the 30 percent rule, a player's compensation cannot increase in 2007 or beyond by more than 30 percent of the player's 2006 salary, excluding signing bonus.

In order to drive up the basis for the application of the 30 percent rule, some teams and agents had planned to transform all or part of the signing bonus into an option bonus due, for example, five days after the contract was signed.

Per the Special Master's ruling, this tactic won't permit the option bonus money to be treated as 2006 salary, which then will make it even harder for teams to strike deals that the players will accept under terms that will fit within the 2006 salary cap.

Instead, both signing bonus and option bonus money will now be excluded from the player's 2006 salary, for the purposes of applying the 30 percent rule.

We're also told that, in a separate ruling, the Special Master invalidated a device that the Colts had been using to fit recent deals under the cap. We presently don't have any further details in this regard, but it could spell trouble for a franchise that somehow has been finding a way to throw around money at a time when other teams are looking for ways to make cuts.

Unlike an arbitrator, who resolves issues such as player grievances, a Special Master handles matters requiring interpretation of the language of the CBA.

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TAGS' LEGACY ON THE LINE THURSDAY

One very important man who has been conspicuously silent over the past couple of weeks as the NFL has tried to hammer out an agreement with its union -- and an agreement among its owners -- is the guy who runs the show.

The Commissioner. Paul Tagliabue.

At age 65 and moving toward retirement, Tagliabue's legacy is squarely on the line as the NFL enters the final 24 hours of semi-sanity before the launch of the last capped year under the current CBA.

Under his leadership, the NFL has become the most popular sports league in the nation, if not the world. Revenues are way, way up. Former Commissioner Pete Rozelle's vision of parity has been achieved, for the most part.

So the worst way for Tagliabue to ride into the sunset is through the haze of a work stoppage and/or a rugby scrum featuring the 32 members of the Billionaire Boys Club.

And Tagliabue knows it.

We're convinced that the problem here is the issue of expanded revenue sharing among the owners, and that a deal with the union is essentially in place. Why else would NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw insist on a revenue sharing deal as part of the new CBA? If the league is willing to include total football revenue in the salary cap formula, why should Upshaw care whether the owners are splitting up the money that goes into the pot?

Besides, why else would all 32 owners travel to New York on Thursday morning for an update regarding the NFLPA's position, if the real purpose isn't to revisit the revenue sharing issue? Is an in-person sit-down really necessary to let the teams know that the union wants 60 percent of the total football revenue to fund the salaries, and the league wants to devote 56.2 percent?

Instead, we think that when the owners take their seats around the big round table in a conference room at the league office, and that Tags will then make like Al Capone from The Untouchables, sauntering around the assembly with a baseball bat in hand.

And he's club the sh-t out of anyone who is still standing in the way of a deal aimed at working out the revenue differences among the owners.

If we're wrong, and if the true impediment to a deal is the fact that the NFLPA wants 60 percent and the NFL is willing only to go to 56.2 percent, our advice is simple.

Do the deal at 58. Now.

If both sides come away with a little less than they wanted, then it's a good deal for everyone. They'll all continue to get richer and richer -- and players won't find themselves scratching and clawing for solid contracts in 2006.

Per team and per year, the resulting money gap isn't that big. And if Upshaw's actual bottom line is 60 percent, it was stoopid of him to move to his final position with the league still 3.8 points south of it.

Our suspicion is that there's already a wink-nod in place at 58, and that the deal becomes official as soon as the owners get their stuff together.

With or without the help of Tags' Louisville Slugger.

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What the heck is a "Special Master", and why does this special master get to decide how to restructure contracts? I'm assuming he/she or "it" is more or less an arbitrator...or maybe it's some kind of Jedi Counsel member, here only for dire situations...

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